There are 18 National Natural Landmarks in the U.S. state of Washington, out of nearly 600 National Natural Landmarks in the United States.
Name | Image | Date | Location | County | Ownership | Description |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Boulder Park and McNeil Canyon Haystack Rocks | 1986 | 47°52′43″N119°48′06″W / 47.878611°N 119.801667°W | Douglas | Federal, state | The most illustrative examples of glacial erratics in the United States. | |
Davis Canyon | 1986 | 48°14′38″N119°45′06″W / 48.243775°N 119.751774°W | Okanogan | State, private | One of the largest and least disturbed examples of antelope bitterbrush-Idaho fescue shrub steppe remaining in the Columbia Plateau. | |
Drumheller Channels | 1986 | 46°58′30″N119°11′47″W / 46.975°N 119.196389°W | Adams, Grant | Federal, state, private | Illustrates the dramatic modification of the Columbia Plateau volcanic terrain by late Pleistocene catastrophic glacial outburst floods. Includes Columbia National Wildlife Refuge. | |
Ginkgo Petrified Forest | 1965 | 46°56′56″N120°00′10″W / 46.948889°N 120.002778°W | Kittitas | State | Thousands of logs petrified in lava flows. Part of Ginkgo/Wanapum State Park. | |
Grand Coulee | 1965 | 47°46′00″N119°13′00″W / 47.766667°N 119.216667°W | Grant | Federal, state, private | An illustration of a series of geological events. | |
Grande Ronde Feeder Dikes | 1980 | Asotin | Private | The best example of basalt dikes, the congealed feeder sources of the Columbia River basalt plateau. | ||
Grande Ronde Goosenecks | 1980 | Asotin | Federal | A 1,500-foot (460 m) deep canyon that follows a tortuous path along meanders. | ||
The Great Gravel Bar of Moses Coulee | 1986 | 47°27′30″N119°48′00″W / 47.458333°N 119.8°W | Douglas | State, private | Largest and best example of a pendent river bar formed by catastrophic glacial outburst floods that swept across the Columbia Plateau. | |
Kahlotus Ridgetop | 2011 | Franklin | State | The best remaining example of the Central Palouse Prairie grassland subtheme. | ||
Mima Mounds | 1966 | 46°53′N123°03′W / 46.89°N 123.05°W | Thurston | State | A prairie containing unusual soil pimples of black silt-gravel. | |
Nisqually Delta | 1971 | 47°06′31″N122°42′11″W / 47.108611°N 122.703056°W | Pierce, Thurston | Federal, state, tribal, private | An unusually fine example of an estuarine ecosystem. Includes Nisqually National Wildlife Refuge. | |
Point of Arches | 1980 | 48°14′47″N124°42′01″W / 48.2464503°N 124.7002419°W | Clallam | Federal | An outstanding exhibit of sea action in sculpturing a rocky shoreline. A unit of Olympic National Park. | |
Rose Creek Preserve | 1984 | Whitman | Private | The best remaining example of the aspen phase of the hawthorne-cow parsnip habitat type in the Columbia Plateau. Managed by The Nature Conservancy. | ||
Sims Corner Eskers and Kames | 1986 | 47°49′30″N119°22′00″W / 47.825°N 119.366667°W | Douglas | Federal, state, private | The best examples in the Columbia Plateau of landforms resulting from stagnation and rapid retreat of the ice sheet during the last glaciation. | |
Steptoe and Kamiak Buttes | 1965 | 47°01′57″N117°17′55″W / 47.0325°N 117.298611°W | Whitman | State, county, private | Isolated mountain peaks of older rock surrounded by basalt, rising above the surrounding lava plateau. | |
Umtanum Ridge Water Gap | 1980 | 46°51′00″N120°32′40″W / 46.85°N 120.544444°W | Kittitas | Federal, state, private | Geologic formation that illustrates the processes of tectonic folding and antecedent stream cutting. [1] | |
Wallula Gap | 1980 | 46°02′40″N118°56′48″W / 46.044444°N 118.946667°W | Benton, Walla Walla | Federal, state, county, municipal | The largest and most spectacular of several large water gaps through basalt anticlines in the Columbia River basin. | |
Withrow Moraine and Jameson Lake Drumlin Field | 1980 | 47°41′15″N119°37′29″W / 47.6875°N 119.624722°W | Douglas | Federal, private | The best examples of drumlins and the most illustrative segment of the only Pleistocene terminal moraine in the Columbia Plateau |
Vantage is a census-designated place (CDP) in Kittitas County, Washington, United States. The population was 74 at the 2010 census.
Grand Coulee Dam is a concrete gravity dam on the Columbia River in the U.S. state of Washington, built to produce hydroelectric power and provide irrigation water. Constructed between 1933 and 1942, Grand Coulee originally had only two powerhouses. The third powerhouse ("Nat"), completed in 1974 to increase energy production, makes Grand Coulee the largest power station in the United States by nameplate-capacity at 6,809 MW.
Grand Coulee is an ancient river bed in the U.S. state of Washington. This National Natural Landmark stretches for about 60 miles (100 km) southwest from Grand Coulee Dam to Soap Lake, being bisected by Dry Falls into the Upper and Lower Grand Coulee.
The Channeled Scablands at one time were a relatively barren and soil-free region of interconnected relict and dry flood channels, coulees and cataracts eroded into Palouse loess and the typically flat-lying basalt flows that remain after cataclysmic floods within the southeastern part of the U.S. state of Washington. The Channeled Scablands were scoured by more than 40 cataclysmic floods during the Last Glacial Maximum and innumerable older cataclysmic floods over the last two million years. These floods were periodically unleashed whenever a large glacial lake broke through its ice dam and swept across eastern Washington and down the Columbia River Plateau during the Pleistocene epoch. The last of the cataclysmic floods occurred between 18,200 and 14,000 years ago.
Franklin D. Roosevelt Lake is the reservoir created in 1941 by the impoundment of the Columbia River by the Grand Coulee Dam in Washington state. It is named for Franklin D. Roosevelt, who was president during the construction of the dam. Covering 125 square miles, it stretches about 150 miles (240 km) from the Canada–US border to Grand Coulee Dam, with over 600 miles (970 km) of shoreline; by surface area it is the largest lake and reservoir in Washington. It is the home of the Lake Roosevelt National Recreation Area.
The Great Allegheny Passage (GAP) is a 150-mile (240 km) rail trail between Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and Cumberland, Maryland. Together with the C&O Canal towpath, the GAP is part of a 335 mi (539 km) route between Pittsburgh and Washington, D.C., that is popular with through hikers and cyclists.
Natural Bridge is a geological formation in Rockbridge County, Virginia, comprising a 215-foot-high (66 m) natural arch with a span of 90 feet (27 m). It is situated within a gorge carved from the surrounding mountainous limestone terrain by Cedar Creek, a small tributary of the James River. Consisting of horizontal limestone strata, Natural Bridge is the remains of the roof of a cave or tunnel through which the Cedar Creek once flowed.
Wallula Gap is a large water gap of the Columbia River through the Horse Heaven Hills basalt anticlines in the Columbia River Basin in the U.S. state of Washington, just south of the confluence of the Walla Walla and Columbia rivers. It has been recognized as a National Natural Landmark by the National Park Service as a site that provides an important illustration of the geological history of the United States.
Drumheller Channels National Natural Landmark showcases the Drumheller Channels, which are the most significant example in the Columbia Plateau of basalt butte-and-basin Channeled Scablands. This National Natural Landmark is an extensively eroded landscape, located in south central Washington state characterized by hundreds of isolated, steep-sided hills (buttes) surrounded by a braided network of numerous channels, all but one of which are currently dry. It is a classic example of the tremendous erosive powers of extremely large floods such as those that reformed the Columbia Plateau volcanic terrain during the late Pleistocene glacial Missoula Floods.
Sims Corner Eskers and Kames National Natural Landmark of Douglas County, Washington and nearby McNeil Canyon Haystack Rocks and Boulder Park natural landmarks contain excellent examples of Pleistocene glacial landforms. Sims Corner Eskers and Kames National Natural Landmark includes classic examples of ice stagnation landforms such as glacial erratics, terminal moraines, eskers, and kames. It is located on the Waterville Plateau of the Columbia Plateau in north central Washington state in the United States.
Moses Coulee is a canyon in the Waterville plateau region of Douglas County, Washington. Moses Coulee is the second-largest and westernmost canyon of the Channeled Scablands, located about 30 kilometres (19 mi) to the west of the larger Grand Coulee. This water channel is now dry, but during glacial periods, large outburst floods with discharges greater than 600,000 m3/s (21,000,000 cu ft/s) carved the channel. While it's clear that megafloods from Glacial Lake Missoula passed through and contributed to the erosion of Moses Coulee, the origins of the coulee are less clear. Some researchers propose that floods from glacial Lake Missoula formed Moses Coulee, while others suggest that subglacial floods from the Okanogan Lobe incised the canyon. The mouth of Moses Coulee discharges into the Columbia River.
The Withrow Moraine and Jameson Lake Drumlin Field is a National Park Service–designated privately owned National Natural Landmark located in Douglas County, Washington state, United States. Withrow Moraine is the only Ice Age terminal moraine on the Waterville Plateau section of the Columbia Plateau. The drumlin field includes excellent examples of glacially-formed elongated hills.
Crab Creek is a stream in the U.S. state of Washington. Named for the presence of crayfish, it is one of the few perennial streams in the Columbia Basin of central Washington, flowing from the northeastern Columbia River Plateau, roughly 5 km (3.1 mi) east of Reardan, west-southwest to empty into the Columbia River near the small town of Beverly. Its course exhibits many examples of the erosive powers of extremely large glacial Missoula Floods of the late Pleistocene, which scoured the region. In addition, Crab Creek and its region have been transformed by the large-scale irrigation of the Bureau of Reclamation's Columbia Basin Project (CBP), which has raised water table levels, significantly extending the length of Crab Creek and created new lakes and streams.
The Saddle Mountains consists of an upfolded anticline ridge of basalt in Grant County of central Washington state. The ridge, reaching to 2,700 feet, terminates in the east south of Othello, Washington near the foot of the Drumheller Channels. It continues to the west where it is broken at Sentinel Gap before ending in the foothills of the Cascade Mountains.
Boulder Park National Natural Landmark, of Douglas County, Washington, along with the nearby McNeil Canyon Haystack Rocks and Sims Corner Eskers and Kames natural landmarks, illustrate well-preserved examples of classic Pleistocene ice stagnation landforms that are found in Washington. These landforms include numerous glacial erratics and haystack rocks that occur near and on the Withrow Moraine, which is the terminal moraine of the Okanogan ice lobe.
The Ice Age Floods National Geologic Trail is a network of routes connecting natural sites and facilities that provide interpretation of the geological consequences of the Glacial Lake Missoula floods of the last glacial period that occurred about 18,000 to 15,000 years ago. It includes sites in Washington, Oregon, Idaho, and Montana. It was designated as the first National Geologic Trail in the United States in 2009.
Columbia National Wildlife Refuge is a scenic mixture of rugged cliffs, canyons, lakes, and sagebrush grasslands. Formed by fire, ice, floods, and volcanic tempest, carved by periods of extreme violence of natural forces, the refuge lies in the middle of the Drumheller Channeled Scablands of central Washington. The area reveals a rich geologic history highlighted by periods of dramatic activity, each playing a major role in shaping the land. The northern half of the refuge, south of Potholes Reservoir, is a rugged jumble of cliffs, canyons, lakes, and remnants of lava flows. This part of the Scablands, known as the Drumheller Channels, is the most spectacularly eroded area of its size in the world and was designated as a National Natural Landmark in 1986.